Lithuania to Buy Additional Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines, Refuses to Supplement Modernos

Complemented by comments from I. Šimonytė and G. Landsbergis

Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys stated that the European Commission (EC) has agreed with BioNTech and Pfizer an additional 200 million euros. vaccine dose. According to the Ministry, taking into account the latest agreements, Lithuania would need LTL 1.24 million pro rata. additional doses of vaccine.

“We suggest what belongs to Lithuania proportionally through that opportunity and take advantage of it by adjusting our previous decision accordingly,” the minister said.

The government has rejected the EC’s offer to buy an additional 310,000 doses of the modern vaccine. A. Dulkys emphasized that the pharmaceutical company had increased its price by a third, as well as the delivery conditions for unsatisfied vaccines in Lithuania.

“Because Moderna raises the price and does not want to distribute it under the same conditions – it increases that price by 33% of what is specified in the contract, and because it does not improve the terms, but only forecasts them at the end of the year, our working group and not take this addition, ”said the minister.

In a press conference, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė emphasized that the government of Saulius Skvernelis had refused to buy additional doses of Modern vaccines, and that the Cabinet of Ministers “reaffirmed the decision.”

At that time, an additional quantity of Pfizer vaccine was ordered, he said, because “the vaccine first appeared, we started vaccinating it and its delivery dates are the most favorable of the vaccines we have now.

Greater clarity will be required in vaccine delivery

At the time, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that Lithuania would demand more clarity from the European Commission regarding the deadlines for the delivery of coronavirus vaccines.

Presenting the future agenda of the General Affairs Council of the European Union (EU) and Lithuania’s positions in the government on Wednesday, he said that Lithuania’s main objective is to ensure that the quantities and timing of vaccines purchased jointly with the EU countries “meet our needs”. According to him, the current uncertainties are causing tensions between the parties.

“We will ask the European Commission to guarantee maximum transparency in the negotiations on the conditions of acquisition of some situations of this type in which the delivery time is not disclosed.” There are also disputes between states, and overall confidence in the overall acquisition mechanism is declining, there are offers to acquire independently, which would be even more damaging for states than participating in a joint project. We believe that more transparency would benefit everyone, “Landsbergis said.

The issue of national coordination in managing the COVID-19 pandemic will be discussed remotely next week at the level of both the EU Ministers and the European Council.

Lithuania’s position presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that the greatest difficulties are caused by the insufficient number of doses of vaccines, so it is necessary to seek opportunities with manufacturers to increase production capacity, as well as shorten delivery times. delivery of vaccines.

In Lithuania, more than 27,000 people have already been vaccinated against the first dose of coronavirus. As of Wednesday, only BioNTech and Pfizer were used in the country, and the Moderna vaccine was introduced on Wednesday. In both cases, immunity to COVID-19 is only acquired after the second dose of the vaccine.

Lithuania has also expressed its desire to buy the vaccines AstraZeneca, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Sanofi and GSK and CureVac together with the EU countries, which have not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency. In total, it is currently planned to acquire more than 8 million. dose of vaccines.

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